Dragons' Den-backed 'skinny' fake tan misled customers, watchdog rules

A fake tan firm which launched after featuring on BBC show Dragons' Den misled customers, a business watchdog has ruled.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said claims by Skinny Tan that their product could "tone" or give "less visible cellulite" were baseless.

Claims that the product was "100 per cent natural" were also deemed misleading. As a result, the company's adverts have been withdrawn and must be altered for the future.

Skinny Tan was launched in 2013, after entrepreneurs Louise Ferguson and Kate Cotton won £60,000 of investment from panellists Piers Linney and Kelly Hoppen.

It was the most successful pitch for investment in the history of the BBC2 show, as all five dragons fought fiercely for the chance to invest.

The firm was bought up by beauty giant InnovaDerma in 2015, which defends its cellulite-reduction claims, stating: "[it was] commonly believed that tanning could make you look thinner" and that its claims were only in regard to the "cosmetic effect of the tan", not any actual physiological effects of the product.

Rival beauty firm PZ Cussons launched the investigation after filing a complaint with the ASA regarding an advertising campaign on Skinny Tan's Facebook page and the nature of the promotional content on its website.

The ASA said that other claims, such as the brand's alleged "No 1 in the UK" status, were clearly misleading to customers and should be prohibited.

They said: "We considered that this did not constitute a substantive body of evidence to support the claims. We therefore concluded that the aims in the ads were misleading.

"We also did not receive evidence that the product as a whole, rather than just ingredients that made up the product, had been independently certified as 'natural'."

The Standard has approached InnovaDerma and Skinny Tan for comment.